It may have taken over two months, but the Detroit Red Wings have appeared to find a line that can help deepen this offense.
James van Riemsdyk, J.T. Compher and Michael Rasmussen are all heating up for a Red Wings team that has been so desperately looking for secondary scoring. van Riemsdyk has scored in four straight games, Compher has five points in his last seven games, and Rasmussen has added four points of his own in those seven games, while playing alongside Compher.
The chemistry began with Compher and Rasmussen on Nov. 28, in a 6-3 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning, in which both players scored and were the lone assists on each player's goals. An injury to Mason Appleton the next night in Boston required Red Wings’ head coach Todd McLellan to adjust his lines.
The beginning of the Red Wings' fourth line
The addition was 36-year-old James van Riemsdyk, who had found himself in-and-out of the lineup, through the season’s opening two months. The decision paid off immediately as van Riemsdyk opened the game’s scoring in the second half of a home-and-home during the first period against the Bruins on Dec. 2.
The former second-overall pick in 2007 then chipped in a power play goal during the team’s 6-5 shootout loss to Columbus, showcasing the in-tight scoring ability van Riemsdyk has been touted with his entire career.
In game two of the Red Wings’ current six-game road trip, van Riemsdyk teamed up with Compher for what might be his biggest goal to this point, while donning the Winged Wheel uniform. Down 3-2 at the time to the Seattle Kraken and in the final minute of a sloppy second period, Compher sprung van Riemsdyk on a two-on-one with Rasmussen, where the veteran forward made no mistake, scoring his sixth of the year to tie the game at three, in an eventual 4-3 comeback win for the Red Wings.
Speaking to the media after the win in Seattle on Dec. 6, van Riemsdyk spoke on his hot streak and the connection that the Wings’ fourth line has found, “It’s nice to get some puck, I felt a little bit snakebit early in the year. I’ve liked our line the last few games, especially, I feel like we’re right there with how we’re reading off each other.”
That statement proved to be true, as in the Red Wings’ 4-0 win in Vancouver on Monday, the trio combined for van Riemsdyk’s seventh of the season to open the game’s scoring. Compher picked up the primary assist, and Rasmussen added the secondary helper.
Speaking to the media after the victory on Monday, McLellan acknowledged just how important it is that the Red Wings find players to chip in some offense, “We’re happy we got the secondary scoring. We can’t keep relying on three or four guys. When they are having dry nights, somebody else needs to pick up the slack.”
If the Red Wings can continue to get this production from their fourth line, this is an offense that can prove dangerous in a crowded Eastern Conference, where each goal and point are at a premium.